Regulating assignment of a wireless local area network communication channel

ABSTRACT

A technique includes identifying a cellular communication frequency band and a wireless local area network communication channel being used by a wireless station. Based on the identified cellular communication frequency band and wireless local area network communication channel, assignment of the wireless local area network communication channel is regulated to inhibit interference due to the concurrent use of the cellular communication frequency band and the wireless local area network communication channel. The regulation of the assignment includes using the wireless station to determine whether to reassign the wireless local area network communication channel.

BACKGROUND

A portable electronic device, such as a tablet or notebook computer, maycommunicate wirelessly with one or multiple networks. For example, theportable electronic device may have a radio to allow the device tocommunicate with a wireless local area network (WLAN) over communicationchannels governed by one of the Institute of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE) 802.11 specifications, commonly referred to as the WiFicommunication protocols. The portable electronic device may also have aradio to allow the device to communicate with a cellular network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system according to an exampleimplementation.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of the regulation of a wireless local areanetwork (WLAN) channel by a wireless station according to an exampleimplementation.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are flow diagrams depicting techniques to regulateassignment of a WLAN channel for a wireless station according to exampleimplementations.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the wireless station of FIG. 1according to an example implementation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A portable wireless station, such as a tablet computer, a smartphone, anotebook computer, and so forth, may have multiple radios for purposesof allowing the wireless station to communicate with multiple wirelessnetworks. For example, the wireless station may have a cellular radiothat operates in a cellular frequency band; and the wireless station mayhave other radios, such as WiFi and Bluetooth radios, that operate inone or multiple other frequency bands, such as frequency band(s) in theunlicensed industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio spectrum.

With multiple, concurrently operating radios, it is possible that theenergy (harmonic energy, for example) that is generated by one radio mayinterfere with the reception of another radio. More specifically, thereis an ever-increasing number of frequency channels being added forcellular communications. Although the frequency bands for cellularcommunications may be allocated in a manner to prevent interference withcommunications in non-cellular bands (a band in the ISM spectrum, forexample), a given cellular band may nevertheless be dose enough to anon-cellular band to cause interference.

For example, a portable wireless station may have a wireless networkinterface card (WNIC) that has a wireless local area network (WLAN)radio to communicate with a WLAN using a legally-allowed frequency band,such as a band in the ISM spectrum or other band. In this manner, theWLAN radio may, for example, wirelessly communicate with the WLAN usingsignals that comply with the WiFi protocols that are set forth in theInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11nstandard. The 802.11n standard, in general, uses two frequency bandswithin the ISM spectrum: a 2.4 GigaHertz (GHz) band and a 5 GHz band.The WLAN radio is assigned a channel frequency (designated by a channelnumber) within one of these frequency bands. For example, the WLAN radiomay be assigned to channel 6 in the 2.4 GHz frequency band.

When the WLAN radio is assigned a channel in the 2.4 GHz frequency band,it is possible that the channel may be subject to interference that isgenerated by the operation of the wireless station's cellular radio. Forexample, the cellular radio may be assigned to Band 40 of the timedivision duplexing (TDD) mode of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard.LTE TDD Band 40, in turn, is adjacent in frequency to the WLAN 2.4 GHzfrequency band. In this manner, LTE TDD Band 40 extends to 2400MegaHertz (MHz), and the 2.4 GHz WLAN band begins at 2401 MHz. As aresult, it is possible that with these assignments, the WLAN radio maybe unable to reliably recover content due to operation of the cellularradio, or vice versa.

In accordance with example implementations that are described herein, awireless station regulates a frequency channel and/or frequency bandassignment of its WLAN radio for purposes of ensuring that its WLANradio can coexist with its cellular radio without one radio interferingwith the other.

Referring to FIG. 1, as a more specific example, in accordance with someimplementations, a system 100 includes a wireless station 120. Inaccordance with some implementations, the wireless station 120 may be aportable electronic device, such as a tablet, a notebook computer, asmartphone, and so forth. As depicted in FIG. 1, the wireless station120 may include wireless network interface, such as a wireless networkinterface card (WNIC) 130. The WNIC 130 includes a WLAN radio 131 and anantenna for purposes of wirelessly communicating (as depicting atreference numeral 192) with WLAN fabric 190.

As a more specific example, in accordance with some implementations, theWLAN radio 131 may communicate with WLAN fabric 190 using one of theIEEE 802.11 communication standards, commonly referred to as “WiFi.”More specifically, in accordance with example implementations that arediscussed herein, the WLAN radio 131 uses signaling that complies withthe IEEE 802.11n protocol, which establishes two bands (a 2.4 GHz and a5 GHz band) for the wireless communication 192. The WLAN radio maycommunicate in an ISM band or, in general in any other legally-allowedfrequency hand. Depending on the particular implementation, the wirelesscommunication 192 may be in an ad hoc mode or in an infrastructure mode.For the particular implementation depicted in FIG. 1, the WLAN radio 131operates in the infrastructure mode to communicate with a wirelessaccess point 191 of the WLAN network fabric 190.

In accordance with example implementations, the wireless station 120includes one or multiple radios other than the WLAN radio 131, such as acellular radio 140, which is coupled to an antenna 144 to communicatewirelessly (as depicted at reference numeral 196) with a cellularnetwork fabric 194. For example implementations that are describedherein, the cellular radio 140 communicates over an LTE cellularcommunication band, although other cellular communication bands (globalsystem for mobile communications (GSM) bands, for example) may be usedby the cellular radio 140 to communicate with the cellular networkfabric 194, in accordance with further implementations.

The wireless station 120, in accordance with example implementations,includes a coexistence management engine 150, which regulates assignmentof the WLAN channel for the WLAN radio 131 for purposes of preventing,or at least inhibiting, interference among the concurrently operatingradios 131 and 140. In accordance with some implementations, thecoexistence management engine 150 may include one hardware processor 152(as depicted in FIG. 1) or multiple hardware processors 152.

In accordance with example implementations, the coexistence managementengine 150 may assign the WLAN frequency band and/or may assign the WLANfrequency channel for the WLAN radio 131 based on the cellular frequencyband that is assigned to the cellular radio 140. More specifically, inaccordance with example implementations, the coexistence managementengine 150 determines whether a WLAN channel that is currently assignedto the WLAN radio 131 can coexist with the frequency band that iscurrently assigned to the cellular radio 140. This determination mayoccur in response to the cellular radio 140 being assigned to adifferent frequency band, may occur as part of a periodic check by thecoexistence management engine 150 to evaluate coexistence, may occur inresponse to another entity of the wireless station 120 reassigning theWLAN frequency channel, may occur in response to user action, and soforth, depending on the particular implementation. Regardless of thetriggering event, the coexistence engine 150 may change the assignmentof the WLAN channel if the engine 150 determines that the WLAN channeland the cellular communication frequency band cannot coexist (i.e., ifthe engine 150 determines that the WLAN radio 131 cannot reliablyrecover content received over the currently assigned WLAN channel due tointerference from the cellular radio 140, or vice versa).

In accordance with example implementations that are described herein,the coexistence management engine 150 evaluates whether the currentlyassigned WLAN frequency channel can coexist with the currently assignedcellular communication frequency band based on the application ofpredetermined decision rules and not based on measurements of actualinterference. However, in accordance with further exampleimplementations, the coexistence management engine 150 may base at leastpart of the evaluation on one or multiple measurements and analysis ofthese measurements for purposes of assessing the degree of actualinterference, if any.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a process that is used by the coexistencemanagement engine 150 to regulate assignment of the WLAN frequencychannel, in accordance with some implementations. In particular, FIG. 2illustrates a spectrum 204, which includes potential LTE cellularfrequency bands 210, 218, 222 and 226 that may be used by the cellularradio 140: and the spectrum 214 includes the 2.4 GHz WLAN band 214. Inthis manner, for this example, the 2.4 GHz band extends from 2400 to2483.5 MHz and is part of the ISM spectrum. For the following examples,it is assumed that, when evaluated by the coexistence management engine150, the WLAN radio 131 is assigned to a frequency channel 250 withinthe 2.4 GHz band 214. As depicted in FIG. 2, the 2.4 GHz band 214contains fourteen frequency channels 250.

For example, the WLAN radio 131 may be assigned to channel 13 (shown atreference number 250-2) of the 2.4 GHz band 214. The coexistencemanagement engine 150 may identify the assigned WLAN channel and theassigned WLAN frequency band by reading data from one or multipleregisters 274 of the WNIC 130. Moreover, the coexistence managementengine 150 may identify the assigned LTE frequency band by reading oneor multiple registers 282 that are associated with the cellular radio140.

As more specific example, the cellular radio may be assigned to LTEfrequency division duplexing mode (FDD) mode Band 7 218, and the WLANradio 131 may be assigned to channel 13 of the 2.4 GHz band 214. Asdepicted in FIG. 2, the LTE FDD Band 7 214 extends from 2500 to 2570MHz, and channel 13 extends from 2460 to 2483 MHz. Due to the closeproximity of channel 13 to the band 218, the coexistence managementengine 150 may determine that channel 13 cannot coexist with the band218 (i.e., the WLAN radio 131 cannot reliably recover content fromchannel 13 due to the operation of the cellular radio 140). Thecoexistence management engine 150 may then communicate with the wirelessaccess point 191 to change the WLAN channel assignment. For this exampleimplementation, the coexistence management engine 150 may attempt toassign the WLAN channel to the lowest available channel 250 within the2.4 GHz band 214. For example, the coexistence management engine 150 maycommunicate with the wireless access point 191 to change the WLANchannel to channel 1 (shown at reference numeral 250-1) or at leastassign the WLAN channel to a channel farther away from band 218 thancurrently assigned channel 13.

In a similar manner, if the cellular radio 140 is assigned to the LTEtime divisional duplexing (TDD) band 40 210, which extends to afrequency near the lower boundary of the band 214, then the coexistencemanagement engine 150 may reassign a WLAN channel within the 2.4 GHzband to be farther away from TDD band 40 210. For example, if thecurrent WLAN channel is channel 1, then the coexistence managementengine 150 may reassign the WLAN channel to channel 13 or at leastassign the WLAN channel to a channel farther away from the band 210 thancurrently assigned channel 1.

In accordance with some implementations, the coexistence managementengine 150 may have a preference to assign the WLAN channel to eitherchannel 1, 6 or 11 within the 2.4 GHz band 214. For example, if the WLANradio is assigned to either channel 1 or 6 in the 2.4 GHz band 214 andthe cellular radio 140 is assigned to the LTE TDD band 40 210, then thecoexistence management engine 150 may reassign the WLAN channel tochannel 11. As another example, if the WLAN radio is assigned to eitherchannel 6 or 11 in the 2.4 GHz band 214 and the cellular radio 140 isassigned to the LTE FDD band 7 218, then the coexistence managementengine 150 may reassign the WLAN channel to channel 1.

In accordance with further implementations, the coexistence engine 150may not have preferred WLAN channels, and in yet furtherimplementations, the coexistence engine 150 may have different preferredchannels. As examples, the coexistence engine 150 may prefer bands 1, 6and 12; the coexistence engine 150 may prefer bands 1, 6 and 13; thecoexistence engine 150 may prefer bands 1, 6 and 14; and so forth. Thepreferred bands, if any, may depend on legal regulations where the WLANradio 131 is used, and any generally, the WLAN radio 131 may use anylegally-allowed band.

In accordance with example implementations, instead of reassigning theWLAN communication frequency channel within the 2.4 GHz band 214, thecoexistence management engine 150 may first attempt to reassign the WLANradio 131 to another WLAN frequency band, such as the 5 GHz band. Inthis manner, if the 5 GHz band is unavailable, then the coexistencemanagement engine 150 may reassign the frequency channel within thelower 2.4 GHz band.

Referring to FIG. 3, thus, in accordance with example implementations, atechnique 300 includes identifying (block 304) a cellular communicationfrequency band and a WLAN communication channel that is being by awireless station. Based on the identified cellular communicationfrequency band and WLAN communication channel, the technique 300includes regulating (block 308) assignment of the WLAN communicationchannel to inhibit interference due to concurrent use of the cellularcommunication frequency band and the WLAN communication channel,including using the wireless station to determine whether to reassignthe WLAN communication channel, pursuant to block 308.

More specifically, referring to FIG. 4 in conjunction with FIG. 1, inaccordance with some implementations, the coexistence management engine150 may use a technique 400. The technique 400 includes determining(decision block 404) whether a coexistence issue exists between anassigned WLAN channel and assigned LTE frequency band. If so, thetechnique 400 includes determining (decision block 408) whether thecurrently assigned WLAN frequency band is the 2.4 GHz band and if so,whether the band can be reassigned to the 5 GHz band. If so, then theWLAN frequency band is reassigned to the 5 GHz frequency band, pursuantto block 410. Otherwise, if the WLAN frequency band cannot be reassigned(decision block 408), the technique 400 includes, within the currentWLAN frequency band, reassigning (block 412) the WLAN channel.

In accordance with some implementations, the coexistence managementengine 150 may be formed from dedicated hardware or circuitry, such asan application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). In accordance withfurther example implementations, the coexistence management engine maybe formed by a microprocessor executing machine executable instructions.In this manner, referring to FIG. 5 in conjunction with FIG. 1, inaccordance with example implementations, the coexistence managementengine 150 may be a hardware processor-based device. More specifically,as depicted in FIG. 5, in accordance with some implementations, thewireless station 120 may include hardware 510 and software 560. Thehardware 510 may include the one or multiple hardware processors 152(processing cores, for example) and a memory 530. As an example, thememory 530 may be a non-transitory storage medium formed fromsemiconductor storage devices, phase change memories, memristors, and soforth.

The hardware components may further include the WNIC 130, the cellularradio 140, other network interfaces, input/output (I/O) devices,display, and so forth. The software 560 of the wireless station 120 mayinclude, for example, instructions 564, which when executed by one ormultiple processors 152 cause the processor(s) 152 to perform one ormore parts of the techniques 300 and 400. For example, in accordancewith some implementations, the instructions 564, when executed by one ormultiple processor(s) 152, may cause the processor(s) 152 to identify acellular communication frequency band being used by the wireless station120: and based on the identified cellular communication frequency bandbeing used by the wireless station 120, regulate assignment of a WLANcommunication channel for the station 120 to inhibit interference due tothe concurrent use of the cellular communication frequency band and WLANcommunication channel. The wireless station 120 may include othersoftware, such as instructions 568, which when executed by one ormultiple processor 152 cause the processor(s) 152 to provide anoperating system, one or multiple sets 570 of machine executableinstructions, which when executed by one or multiple processor(s) 152cause the processor(s) 152 to provide one or multiple applications, andso forth.

While the present invention has been described with respect to a limitednumber of embodiments, those skilled in the art, having the benefit ofthis disclosure, will appreciate numerous modifications and variationstherefrom. It is intended that the appended claims cover all suchmodifications and variations as fall within the true spirit and scope ofthis present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: identifying a cellularcommunication frequency band and a wireless local area network (WLAN)communication channel being concurrently used by a wireless station; andbased on the identified cellular communication frequency band and WLANcommunication channel, regulating assignment of the WLAN communicationchannel to inhibit interference due to the concurrent use of thecellular communication frequency band and the WLAN communicationchannel, wherein the regulating of the assignment comprises: using thewireless station to determine whether to reassign the WLAN communicationchannel, and reassigning the WLAN communication channel from a firstchannel to a second channel, the first and second channels beingassociated with a common frequency band, and wherein: the cellularcommunication frequency band comprises a Long Term Evolution (LTE)frequency division duplexing (FDD) Band 7; the common frequency bandcomprises a 2.4 GigaHertz (GHz) frequency band; the first channelcomprises channel six, channel eleven, channel twelve, channel thirteenor channel fourteen in the 2.4 GHz frequency band; and the secondchannel comprises channel one in the 2.4 GHz frequency band.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the first channel is closer in frequency tothe cellular communication frequency band than the second channel.
 3. Amethod comprising: identifying a cellular communication frequency bandand a wireless local area network (WLAN) communication channel beingconcurrently used by a wireless station; and based on the identifiedcellular communication frequency band and WLAN communication channel,regulating assignment of the WLAN communication channel to inhibitinterference due to the concurrent use of the cellular communicationfrequency band and the WLAN communication channel, wherein theregulating of the assignment comprises: using the wireless station todetermine whether to reassign the WLAN communication channel, andreassigning the WLAN communication channel from a first channel to asecond channel, the first and second channels being associated with acommon frequency band, and wherein: the cellular communication frequencyband comprises a Long Term Evolution (LTE) time division duplexing (TDD)Band 40; the common frequency band comprises a 2.4 GigaHertz (GHz)frequency band; the first channel comprises channel one or channel sixin the 2.4 GHz frequency band; and the second channel comprises channeleleven, channel twelve, channel thirteen or channel fourteen in the 2.4GHz frequency band.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first channelis closer in frequency to the cellular communication frequency band thanthe second channel.
 5. An article comprising a non-transitory computerreadable storage medium to store instructions that when executed by acomputer cause the computer having a cellular radio and a wireless localarea network (WLAN) radio to: based on a cellular communicationfrequency band assigned to the cellular radio and a first WLANcommunication channel assigned to the WLAN radio for communications,determine whether to reassign the first WLAN communication channel toinhibit interference of the WLAN radio due to the cellular communicationfrequency band; and based at least in part on a result of thedetermination: determine whether the communications of the computer canbe transitioned from a first WLAN frequency band to a second WLANfrequency band, in response to determining that the communications ofthe computer can be transitioned from the first WLAN frequency band tothe second WLAN frequency band, reassign the WLAN radio from the firstWLAN frequency band to the second WLAN frequency band, and in responseto determining that the communications of the computer cannot betransitioned from the first WLAN frequency band to the second WLANfrequency band, reassign the WLAN radio from the first WLANcommunication channel in the first WLAN frequency band to a second WLANcommunication channel in the first WLAN frequency band.
 6. The articleof claim 5, wherein the first WLAN frequency band is a 2.4 gigahertz(GHz) band, and the second WLAN frequency band is a 5 GHz band.
 7. Thearticle of claim 5, wherein the first WLAN frequency band is a 5gigahertz (GHz) band, and the second WLAN frequency band is a 2.4 GHzband.
 8. The article of claim 5, wherein the cellular communicationfrequency band is a Long Term Evolution (LTE) frequency band.
 9. Thearticle of claim 5, wherein a determination to reassign the WLANcommunication channel to inhibit interference is based on a rule. 10.The article of claim 5, wherein a determination to reassign the WLANcommunication channel to inhibit interference is based on measurementsindicative of interference between the cellular radio and the WLANradio.
 11. A wireless station comprising: a first radio to communicatewith a cellular network; a second radio to communicate with an accesspoint of a wireless local area network (WLAN); and a processor to:determine that a cellular communication frequency band of the firstradio cannot coexist with a first WLAN communication channel of thesecond radio; and in response to the determining: determine whethercommunications of the wireless station can be transitioned from a firstWLAN frequency band to a second WLAN frequency band, in response todetermining that the communications of the wireless station can betransitioned from the first WLAN frequency band to the second WLANfrequency band, reassign the second radio from the first WLAN frequencyband to the second WLAN frequency band, and in response to determiningthat the communications of the wireless station cannot be transitionedfrom the first WLAN frequency band to the second WLAN frequency band,reassign the second radio from the first WLAN communication channel inthe first WLAN frequency band to a second WLAN communication channel inthe first WLAN frequency band.
 12. The wireless station of claim 11,wherein the cellular network comprises a Long Term Evolution (LTE)network, and the WLAN comprises a network associated with communicationsin an industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) frequency band.
 13. Thewireless station of claim 11, wherein the first WLAN frequency band is a2.4 gigahertz (GHz) band, and the second WLAN frequency band is a 5 GHzband.
 14. The wireless station of claim 11, wherein the first WLANfrequency band is a 5 gigahertz (GHz) band, and the second WLANfrequency band is a 2.4 GHz band.
 15. The wireless station of claim 11,wherein the determining that the cellular communication frequency bandof the first radio cannot coexist with the first WLAN communicationchannel of the second radio is based on a rule.
 16. The wireless stationof claim 11, wherein the determining that the cellular communicationfrequency band of the first radio cannot coexist with the first WLANcommunication channel of the second radio is based on measurementsindicative of interference between the first radio and the second radio.